What You Didn't See Coming
by RenaRoo
Summary: What If Bronze Age Batgirl started the New Teen Titans instead of Robin? Slight Babs/Kory


I have wanted to start this AU for a long time, and I'm hopefully going to visit it again in the future. But mostly I just wanted a baseline for my version of the Teen Titans and how we could have had a world with BabsKory in it. I'd love to see what others think of the lineup or the AU in general!

Batgirl, Teen Titans and related properties © DC Comics  
story © RenaRoo

 **What You Didn't See Coming**

She was in the middle of her campaign for Gotham's district seat, having just taken over management of it from her father, when Barbara Gordon began to feel the obscure and haunting sense that she was being _watched._

Slight hysteria and paranoia were the curse of a vigilante lifestyle, and Barbara had been quite familiar with the sensation since she first put on the cape and cowl of Batgirl, but somehow as she said goodnight to Jason and began to part ways for her own apartment it was _different._ It was more _real._

There wasn't a puddle, glass, or mirror she passed on the walk home that did not reflect something other than her auburn hair and firetruck red bag that carried countless _Gordon for Congress_ posters and a secret compartment which would secret away a spare suit and light equipment for herself as Batgirl.

It was a dark figure, a mystifyingly complex shadow that was not Barbara's own, which whispered to her from the shadows with words nigh unrecognizable.

But it was never there when she completely turned, nor were the whispers ever higher than a murmur.

Once she reached her apartment, Barbara's senses were all on high alert and the hairs stood stiffly on the back of her neck as she closed the door, locked it, and chilled instantly as the sensation intensified. In the periphery of her vision, she could still see the dark outline there, and it was looking at her from her hall mirror.

"Alright," she said, grabbing tightly to her bag and doing her best to not completely turn around so that the shadow would not escape again. "Lucky or unlucky for you, you've gotten my attention. If you know what's best for you, you'll explain yourself before I have to do something drastic."

Then, for the first time since Barbara felt followed, she heard the whisper just loud enough to make out the words.

 _"Help me. Please. Help me."_

It was a soft, feminine voice. Younger than herself. And when Barbara turned to face the mirror, she found instead of her reflection, the dark shadow, red eyes glowing from beneath a pointed hood that gave the appearance of a bird of some kind.

Even without fully seeing the woman, Barbara knew in her heart that helping was the only thing she _could_ do.

"Okay," she said firmly, reaching in her bag for her suit without breaking eye contact. "Tell me how."

* * *

"And you don't think it's odd that this mystery shadow was calling for you through a mirror and told you you had to be in New York City before the end of the night?" Kara asked, snuggly holding Barbara by the waist as she flew them both to the city.

"Of course I find it odd," Barbara replied, adjusting her cowl for the wind resistance of flying once more. "Which is why _you're_ here for backup, after all."

A coy smile crossed Supergirl's face as they closed in on the Big Apple. "An honor as always, BeeGee," she said lightly.

Without warning, a tingling sensation began in Barbara's back and she felt her hair stand on end again, not unlike when she finally managed to see the strange shadow calling for help. She looked down to the nearest rooftop and pointed toward it. "Something tells me when need to get down there, Supergirl. And I mean, _fast._ Who knows why…"

"Definitely not _me_ , you've still got me in the dark!" Kara answered, though she followed through with the order without a hitch, flying them toward the rooftop. "I still find all of this rather spooky, don't you, Batgirl?"

Barbara was hardly listening to her longtime friend, instead sifting through her bag for equipment and pulling out her Bat-noculars once she found them in order to see what she could from the roof. "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," she answered.

Kara raised a brow and crossed her arms. "You bats and your Sherlock Holmes."

"Shakespeare, actually," Barbara corrected before pausing her gaze. She was shocked and amazed to see, tumbling through the sky, something that looked like a fireball, breaking through the clouds and searing straight toward the buildings around them. "My god! Supergirl! It's some kind of meteor or—"

"On it!" Kara assured her, taking off with enough speed and force that in nearly caused Barbara to lose her balance.

Her heart was still pounding as she looked on in horror. Barbara had every confidence in her friend, but the reality of the danger of a meteor being capable of getting that close to the city without breaking up meant that the possibility of impact was _huge._ Terrifyingly so!

"That's something you don't see every day."

It wasn't often that Barbara was taken by surprise, and so she immediately spun around with her fists ready and her stance lowered toward the source of the unfamiliar voice, only to find that the young, blonde woman in a dashing red and yellow uniform was holding her hands up in surprise. She also, judging by height and the small amount of baby fat in her cheeks, was still _much_ younger than Barbara herself.

"Whoa, whoa! Sorry! I'm just… Uh. You see, I'm a big fan. I didn't mean to… I was just trying to help the girl in the shadows," the girl said so quickly that her words almost ran together.

Confused, Babs narrowed her eyes. "Girl in the shadows?" she asked. "What do you know about her? And what's _your_ name?"

"Good question," she answered. "I guess I'll figure out which one I'll go with after the divorce is over…"

Before Barbara could fully reply to the almost nonsensical answer, she noticed how the fireball seemed to make an unnatural maneuver, twisting out of Kara's flight path and then shooting a green tinged flare directly at the Kryptonian.

"Supergirl!" Barbara yelled out.

"I've got her!"

Leaping over Barbara and the blonde girl's heads at an amazing volume, a young man covered in metallic armor arched his leap just enough to catch the downed Supergirl mid drop, landing on the distant roof two buildings away from them.

"Wow!" the girl beside Barbara said before muttering something and zipping so fast that only a trail of light seemed to flow behind her as she crossed the buildings to reach Supergirl and her savior's sides. "Were you all here for the shadow girl, too? How weird. That's what I'm here for. Would you believe it? Me, I never realized that I could do the same as my dad. It's so weird—"

The fireball was still tumbling through the air, however it was close enough that Barbara could see even without binoculars that it was less of a meteor and more of a beautiful, golden skin woman whose hair flowed behind her in a hot red flame. It was enough to make Barbara leap into action herself, pulling out her grappling hook and racing toward the edge of the rooftop before firing off for a nearby skyscraper's ledge.

With a well practiced arch of her body, Barbara swung directly beneath the falling pattern of the golden skinned woman, and used her free arm to capture her before she could barrel into the side of the apartment complex below.

They then landed clumsily on the street below, rolling with each other until they came to a stop, Barbara on her cape and the golden woman straddling her.

Barbara stared up into the stunning emerald eyes of the woman and knew immediately that what she saw was not a human likeness but some of completely alien nature. Her thin , short brows knitted together and her head turned slightly, fire bounding off of her hair and shoulders but seemingly causing no harm toward her. She was like a sunspot, her heat warming Barbara's stomach as she remained straddled upon.

The alien opened her mouth and a harmonic language spilled from her lips. She almost bashfully swept some hair from her face and continued speaking with syllables and vows that held no meaning toward Barbara herself.

"I… I don't…" Barbara began to answer just before a flash of light to their left side led to the appearance of the rambunctious blonde again.

"Wow! What a catch, Batgirl! That was amazing! But are you two okay? Who is this? Is she a bad guy, is that why she shot fire at Supergirl. Holy cow I'm on the street with a bunch of superheroes oh my gosh I can't believe this is happening. No one's ever going to believe me! Hey is this girl the shadow girl? I'm confused. Why're we all here together again?"

Blinking, Barbara tried desperately to make sense of everything that was going on but three other costumed vigilantes landed at her other side which somewhat distracted her. Kara she recognized, of course, and the second d was the young man who had saved her at the last moment, but the third was a fellow Costume that Barbara had only seen from the television and heard about from Dick Grayson of all people — Wonder Girl.

"She… doesn't speak English," Barbara concluded, still not sure how to react to the woman _still sitting on her._ "Supergirl, do you…"

"So now all aliens know each other," Kara joked before stepping forward. She didn't seem overly pleased to be dealing with the woman who shot her out of the sky, but as always she gave it an attempt. Kryptonian poured from her lips as easily as the unknown language had from the other alien.

But the mystery golden woman showed no understanding on her own face. She looked back down confusedly at Barbara.

"Hey, don't look at me, I'm no help," Barbara began to retort only to be completely caught by surprise when the golden woman surged forward and wrapped her arms around Barbara's neck as she kissed the costumed Gothamite on the lips.

"Whoa," the blonde girl said, head tilted.

"Well… alright then," Kara huffed, crossing her arms and waiting impatiently for the moment to pass.

The golden woman released Barbara just enough that they could look once again into each other's eyes. Barbara's mouth couldn't help but hang ajar, still in utter surprise at the moment they had just shared.

"My name is Koriand'r," the golden woman announced in near perfect English, to everyone's surprise. "I am Princess of Tamaran. I have come to help… the woman in the shadow."

Everyone was immediately taken aback by the announcement.

"Are we all here for the same thing?" the young man asked, his red eye glowing as if it were scanning the crowd of them.

"Sounds like it," Kara said, fists set against her belt. "I'm not sure about everyone else, but i tend to prefer when I know who I'm working with. And right now it looks like there's a _lot_ of fresh faces." Her eyes glanced toward the young blonde and then to Koriand'r in particular. "Some of us fresher than others."

"Cyborg," the young man said first, stepping forward. "I guess you could say I'm new here. Not to New York, lived here my whole life — pre-Cyborg that is. But I'm new to… _this_ stuff. I just couldn't stop seeing the girl in the shadows and… well, now I'm here."

"It's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Cyborg," Wonder Girl said, extending her hand to the young man. "And it is very brave of you to use your gifts to become a superhero. I am Wonder Girl, second Princess of Themyscira."

"Yeah," Cyborg muttered quietly. "Gifts."

"Supergirl," Kara said, as if she required any sort of introduction with the S on her chest. "Kara Zor-El, Last Daughter of Krypton."

"Oh!" the blonde cried out enthusiastically before zipping to the sides of the other costumes. "Call me… _Jesse Quick._ Not a princess or anything fancy. Just… You know the superhero _Johnny Quick?_ He's like, friends with the original-original Flash — anyway he's my dad. So that makes me _Jesse Quick._ I guess. You know?" She hesitated. "Unless that sounds stupid."

"I'm Batgirl," Barbara said, slightly pushing at Koriand'r to give her the extra incentive to let her up. She was then surprised by Koriand'r offering her hand to help her up the rest of the way. "Uh… thank you…"

"You all have such strange names," Koriand'r announced. "I apologize if they are not so strange. I am still… _accustoming_ to the language."

"I can't speak for everyone, but of everyone I know here, these aren't our names but are our aliases," Barbara explained, still dazed and a bit confused by what had just transpired. "We use these names in the field — as superheroes — so that our identities may be protected."

Koriand'r blinked her shiny, alien eyes for a moment before producing a smile. "Ah, so I understand!" she said cheerfully. "Then I shall be needing a name also. If it is superheroes who are going to help the woman in the shadow!"

"Besides falling from space, do you have any abilities?" Kara asked, hovering a few feet above the ground herself.

"Hm," the alien hummed before tiling her head back and looking to the sky. With one hand she reached toward the clouds, twisting her hand back and forth in the sunlight before allowing a smile to grow across her features. "Yes. The star closest to this planet is _good,"_ she determined. Then, with a slight push from the ground, Koriand'r was flying same as Kara, her hair alight like golden flames, and her fists cast in a bright green glow. "I believe I shall be called _Starfire."_

Everyone was more than impressed, but Barbara was keeping back her own wonder with the driving question.

"Alright then, Starfire," she said firmly, hands on her hips. "Are those all your abilities? And why did… I mean when we landed you… I couldn't help but notice your reaction… I guess I'm asking if that was just how you say _thank you_ where you're from," Barbara got out, completely flustered.

For a moment, she merely blinked in response before landing on her feet and approaching Barbara. "You mean when I absorbed your language?" she asked.

"You absorb… _languages?"_ Wonder Girl asked, amazed.

"By kissing?" Jesse Quick added, a little perturbed.

Koriand'r threw her head back and laughed. "Earth considers such things kissing? X'hal! That was not a Tamaranian kiss!"

Before Barbara could stop herself, she filed her arms and squinted at Koriand'r. "If that wasn't a Tamaranian kiss, I definitely need to know what is." The innocuous statement was not much more than a joke, but before it really hit Babs what she had just invited Koriand'r to do, the alien princess gave her a wry smile.

The next thing Barbara knew, she was tilted back in Koriand'r embrace and experiencing the warmth and closeness of a Tamaranian kiss.

"Wow," Cyborg commented out loud.

When it ended, Barbara was set up right again and found that all the heat of the kiss had moved firmly into her cheeks. Everyone was staring at her, but Barbara was only staring at Koriand'r. The woman seemed to be blushing herself, a beautiful hue added to her golden skin.

"We're getting sidetracked," Kara tried to move them on, clearly seeing how flustered her long time friend was.

"Absolutely we are," Jesse laughed.

"But the call of the shadow woman," Wonder Girl spoke up. "It led me to this point all the way from Themyscira, but now I'm not sure where to go. I don't know if it's the same experience for everyone else, but I'm definitely somehow out of touch with our friendly shadow—"

 _"You have come, so I will now bring you to me,"_ a familiar voice called to them all, getting everyone to look around curiously.

Barbara then noticed that they all stood in the midst of a giant, circling shadow of energy that had enveloped the pavement.

 _"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."_

"Everyone hold on!" Barbara warned, but it was too late, as they were already lost within the darkness that enveloped them.

* * *

Apparently falling through a shadow dimension meant there was nothing in the way of breaks because Barbara led the charge in hard landings into the nothingness surrounding them. She let out a grunt of both pain and annoyance after the fall then slowly shifted herself from her side to a sitting position. She had her utility belt and everything else in order. And through the darkness she could hear the collisions the small group that had formed for the shadow woman were also having with the dark floor.

"What the heck," Jesse Quick called out.

"Is everyone alright?" Wonder Girl followed up.

"Yes, let me just get my flashlight," Barbara called out, instinctively grabbing for the right pocket and beginning to produce it. Though, of course, it ended up being rather useless as two green lights appeared from the darkness and lit the surface enough that they could all see each other and the torchbearer.

Koriand'r smiled pleasantly. "I hope this helps."

"You're a blessing," Cyborg assured her, pushing to his feet.

"You know what isn't a blessing? That fall from grace I just felt," Kara groaned, getting to her feet but, significantly, not immediately leaping into flight. "Whatever just happened, it involved magic, and it's still surrounding us. My cousin warned me about how magic can affect us, but I never really felt it before now. Not like this."

Wonder Girl got to her feet and crossed her arms in thought. "I definitely sense magic, too, though fortunately it does not hamper my abilities."

Barbara just settled on scowling all the same. "I detest magic."

"My apologies then," a familiar voice said weakly.

They all turned toward the source — the voice of the whisperer who had brought them all together to begin with, and found yet another teen girl in a dark, purple cloak. When she had everyone's attention, she slowly reached up and unveiled herself, revealing piercing purple eyes set on a dark, native face. "I am the Raven," she informed them. "I've seen all of you from my dreams, and in my dreams I have been calling for you to answer me for weeks. At first it was accidental, I did not mean to or seek to disrupt your lives. But as my power grew, I became more aware of my abilities, and more aware of the fact that the future I could see was not only real, but that the place I visited in my dreams was real as well. Which meant the only way of defeating _him_ was to summon all of you just like I had seen in my visions."

Everyone stared at the girl at first then to each other.

"Are any of you buying this?" Cyborg asked critically. "I'm with Batgirl in the department of being _not_ the biggest fan of magic."

"I'm not a fan, but I've seen it enough to know it's real," Barbara was quick to correct. "I've also seen it enough to not trust it."

Wonder Girl stepped closer to the teenager and put a hand on her shoulder. "Raven, was it? Can you tell us who _him_ is? Why does he need to be stopped?"

" _He_ is one of my ancestors," Raven explained. "A dreamwalker, like I am, and a shaman. But my ancestor was corrupted ages ago by nightmares, and he became something inhuman, something beastly and horrible. The stuff of _nightmares._ My ancestors, his decedents, trapped him in a web and forfeited our abilities to walk among dreams for generations, until the ability would be needed again. And in that time, my family's shame has become stronger, larger, less human. He now calls himself Trigon, and he has a strong enough grasp on the realms of dreams and magic that I'm afraid I can't take him on alone. Not now. Not yet. I need help — and the help I saw was from all of you."

Almost immediately, Koriand'r stepped forward. "We will be most honored to help you, Raven!"

Barbara stepped between them. "Hold on, this isn't something for us to not look at very carefully before making any decisions," she warned. "And I think if we decide anything, we need to decide it together."

"Okay, what's the plan then, Boss?" Jesse asked.

Taken aback, Barbara blinked at first and then shook her head. "No, sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like I was wanting to take charge here. That's not what I meant… like, at all. I just wanted cooler heads to prevail."

"You're kind of the coolest head here, Batgirl," Cyborg mentioned with a shrug. "I'm sure as hell not taking all of this in stride no matter what it looks like on the outside right now." He paused and then looked apologetically to Raven. "No offense."

"None taken," she assured him.

"Alright, BeeGee is in charge, but we still need to decide if kicking this Trigon's butt is worth it, especially since at least I'm feeling pretty under the weather with this magic stuff going on," Kara continued. "What's everyone else feeling on it?"

There was a pause of silence.

Raven stepped up again. "If I may… please consider, this is not simply a favor to me that I am requesting from you. This is the fate of all of our worlds and all of our dreams at once. Trigon's power only grows in magnitude, and if we do not contain him, then we are forfeiting reality to him."

"Wow, putting it on heavy, huh?" Jesse answered. "Well, I'd sure like to save the world. I don't know about the rest of you."

"I have seen worlds destroyed, I have seen my own world destroyed," Koriand'r answered, surprising them all. "I will do everything in my power to keep another world from being destroyed. On my watch, this Trigon shall not prevail!"

Wonder Girl nodded. "I have spent my life on Themyscira listening to omens and prophecies, I have no doubt in them now."

"I'm with Starfire," Kara announced. "Under the weather or no, Earth is my home now and I've sworn to never lose another home again."

Cyborg shifted uncomfortably. "Well. Hell. It's not like I can say no to any of _that_ , can I?"

Barbara took a sharp breath and looked intently toward Raven. "You've got us," she informed Raven. "Now tell us what you need us to do."

A relieved smile crossed Raven's face.

* * *

They come together before Trigon. They outnumbered him, but he was a demon, a _devil_ in every sense of the word. Great horns like a deer, the foul tusks of a boar, and red skin that looks like layers of flesh have melted away. There was no mistaking him for the force that Raven was warning them about.

They stood together before him, in a land of unimaginable dreams.

Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Raven, Jesse Quick, and Cyborg.

"You came here to end the world," Barbara announced, "But instead you started something that no one could have seen coming. You started a New Teen Titans. And the only thing coming to an end today, is _you."_


End file.
